Critics Rant

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Sometimes I take it for granted what I think people already know. I told a friend of mine that I had quit smoking on Chantix over a year ago. She said she would like to quit but Chantix was to expensive. I suggested she try to apply for help with her prescription through Pfizer. She did and both her husband and herself get Chantix for free for one year!! Woo Hoo! Isn’t that cool. So she is all excited and told all of her friends. This is what she sent to all of her Facebook friends:

A NOTE TO ANYBODY WANTING TO QUIT SMOKING! A friend of mine recently told me about a program that Pfizer offers for people wishing to quit smoking. If you meet the income requirements Pfizer will give you Chantix free for one full year! They make you re-apply every year, so technically you can get it for longer than a year, as long as you still qualify! Ed & I received our first 3 month supply yesterday! What a great deal! If we hadn’t found out about this program the medicine would have costs us $136/month each! We started the medicine today & already can see it working! Cigarettes taste horrible! You go to http://www.Pfizer.com to get information & the application! If you qualify Pfizer will send a 3 month supply to your doctor’s office, for free, every 3 months, for an entire year! Ed & I are very excited to quit smoking, we have a lot of hope that this medicine will help us do it!!! Wish us luck!!!

Pfizer Research Chief’s Personal Take on Chantix
Posted by Scott Hensley
With questions about the safety of anti-smoking pill Chantix hurting sales, Pfizer’s head of R&D took to the opinion pages of the local paper in support of the medicine over the weekend.

Martin Mackay

Martin Mackay (pictured) wrote in the Day of New London, Conn., about his firsthand experience with the health toll of “cigarette addiction, having watched both of my parents smoke for most of their adult lives and my mother die of lung disease.”

His basic message was in keeping with points the company hit last week in a roundtable meeting with journalists. Quitting smoking is important, but hard. Chantix, despite some risks, remains a safe and effective option, in Pfizer’s view.

The drugmaker has upgraded the cautions on Chantix’s instructions to advise patients to stop taking Chantix in case of agitation, depression, or unusual behavior. Thoughts of suicide are a particular worry. A heightened concern about risk from Chantix led the FAA to ban the use of the drug by pilots and air-traffic controllers last month.

In his Chantix defense, Mackay couldn’t stop with data alone. He invoked some hometown pride in Chantix, one of Pfizer’s “homegrown” medicines.

The active ingredient in Chantix was invented by scientists in labs in Groton, Conn., on the eastern bank of the Thames River. On the opposite shore, in New London, other Pfizer workers designed and ran the clinical tests that led to the FDA’s approval of Chantix in May 2006. Pfizer employs 6,000 people in the area.